Thursday, July 7, 2016

Cathmom5's
introduction: The following post was used in the Catholic Debate Forum
discussion on whether or not Catholics are allowed to disagree with the
opinions or non-infallible writings of Catholic magisterium. Mr. Conte’s post on When May a Catholic Disagree with Pope Francis? was
used to dispute an atheist's argument that if a Catholic work has an
imprimatur by a member of the Papal Biblical Commission, a Catholic had
no right to disagree with it. As many members tried to point out, an
imprimatur simply means "it may be printed." It basically means the
bishop gave permission to the author to go ahead and print the project.
A Nihil Obstat says that there is nothing offensive or nothing to
offend a Catholic in the book. Neither is a stamp proclaiming the work
as official Catholic teaching, but nothing seems to convince the
atheist of the error of his interpretation of Catholic phrases,
documents, and doctrine. He believes he knows everything there is to
know about what Catholics believe, and no one can tell him otherwise.
The point several people have tried to make is that Catholics are free
to disagree with a commentary; a commentary is not compulsory belief.
All that aside, even if were "official" Catholic Teaching, I would not
agree with his interpretation of what it said in the JBC or how he tried
to apply it to an issue that had nothing to do with the commentary
entry.

Anyway,
I thought this article by Mr. Ron Conte was an excellent explanation of
how and when a Catholic may disagree with the Catholic Magisterium
(Pope Francis specifically, but it can and does apply to the magisterium
in general). I will make some comments to Mr. Conte's post just for
purposes of pointing out some anti-Catholic people (Protestant, atheist,
what have you) who like to claim that Catholics are mindless drones, or
at the very least not allowed to think for themselves.

Pope Francis is a valid Pope.
He is currently the only Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict
XVI validly resigned, and so he is no longer the Pope; that is why he is called
“Pope emeritus”. Any Catholic who rejects Pope Francis as the valid and sole
current Pope of the one true Church is in a state of formal schism, is
automatically excommunicated, and may not receive any of the Sacraments (except
Confession, once he is repentant). If you reject the Pope, you have separated
yourself from formal communion with the Catholic Church.

One thing that Catholics are not allowed to disagree on is the Pope. The
pope is elected by the College of Cardinals through the guidance of the
Holy Spirit. The process has been formalized and streamlined over the
centuries but the ceremony does not take away the work of the Holy
Spirit. In other words, Catholics are not allowed to disagree with the
Holy Spirit. As Mr. Conte said, the Catholic who does not recognize the
current, validly elected pope is in schism (no longer a Catholic).
Unfortunately, there are many of them out there now--claiming to be
Catholic but claim there is no valid pope. They are wrong and no longer
Catholic.

For Catholics who accept Pope
Francis as the valid Roman Pontiff, some disagreement is possible without
heresy, schism, or other grave sin.

So here Mr. Conte wants to make it clear that not all of what the pope
says is binding on all Catholics. Not everything he says is infallible. In other words, we are allowed to use our own brain. The following are conditions under which we may disagree.

1. Personal Opinion

When Pope Francis expresses
his personal opinion on a matter of faith or morals (or any other topic), and
given that the Magisterium has no definitive teaching on the subject, the
faithful Catholic is free to disagree.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote and
published a book entitled, Jesus of
Nazareth: from the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration. In the
preface of that book, he writes:

“It goes without saying that
this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an
expression of my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord’ (cf. Ps 27:8).
Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my readers for that
initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding.” [1]

Here Pope Benedict XVI gives
us a good example to follow concerning the expression of theological opinions
by the Bishops and the Pope. Such expressions, no matter how emphatically they
may be phrased, are not an exercise of the Magisterium, and so are not binding
on the faithful. All are free to disagree with the Pope in any personal opinion
that he expresses: about Jesus, about matters of faith and morals, and
certainly on other matters.

Caveat: In all likelihood,
the opinion of the Pope on any matter pertaining to faith or morals is better
than your opinion. The mere opinion of the Pope is fallible, but so are all
your opinions.

The pope's personal opinions, personal devotions, prayers, etc. are his
own. Of course, I'd think that his opinion pulls much more weight than
mine. Pope St. John Paul II's opinion on the death penalty [*added 22 Jun 17--See #5, third paragraph from his St. Louis Homily] made me look at it differently, and I eventually changed my opinions in
line with his. Eventually, he included his teaching on the subject in
his encyclical Evangelium Vitae(the Gospel of Life) in 1995. This encyclical lends even more weight to his teaching. See below under prudential judgment.

2. Prudential Judgment

When Pope Francis issues a
judgment of the prudential order, under his authority as Pope, but as a
judgment not a teaching, the faithful Catholic is free to disagree.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia.
For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the
application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not
for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy
Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war,
and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it
may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have
recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion
even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not
however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.” [2]

Caveat: An official decision
of the Pope under his temporal authority (the type of Church authority that
exercises prudential judgment) may still be binding on you as a Catholic. So,
for example, if the Pope changes the form of the Mass, you are free to think
that the changes are imprudent, but you are not free to reject the Mass on that
basis. Or if the Pope changes the rules for reception of Communion, you are
free to argue that the changes are imprudent, but you are not free to reject
the Mass or the Pope on that basis.

The changes in the Mass since Vatican II have been the basis of much
disgruntlement among "radical traditionalists" sometimes called
"rad-trads". These people refuse to go to Mass when the novus ordo (new
order) Mass is said. They seek out traditional Latin Mass for the most
part. The Latin Mass, per se is certainly not a bad thing, but neither
is the Novus ordo. Since the radical changes to the new Mass in the
70's, the American Bishops have been working on tweaking the Mass,
making it closer to the Latin Mass. The updates have been good. The
point is that no practicing Catholic is allowed to forego Mass because
there is not a Mass nearby that they believe is the right one. Even if
you believe that everyone should attend a Latin Mass, you cannot skip
Mass while on vacation just because you can't find a Latin Mass.

3. Non-infallible Teachings

Each and every teaching of
the Magisterium falls into one of two categories: infallible or non-infallible.
It is a common misunderstanding to think that all teachings of the Magisterium
are entirely without error.

Pope John Paul II: “With
respect to the non-infallible expressions of the authentic magisterium of the
Church, these should be received with religious submission of mind and will.”
[3]

The non-infallible teachings
are reliable and have only a limited possibility of error, but they are NOT infallible.
The errors possible in non-infallible teachings never reach to the extent of
leading the faithful away from the path of salvation. But non-infallible
teachings are non-irreformable. They are subject to a limited possibility of
correction, improvement, and change.

“There exist in the Church a
lawful freedom of inquiry and of thought and also general norms of licit
dissent.” [4]

Here we see a very specific statement on when we have freedom of
thought! from Pope St. John Paul II. "There exist in the Church a lawful
freedom of inquiry and thought and also general noms of licit dissent."
There is no doubt we are allowed to think for ourselves.

Non-infallible teachings are
subject to a limited possibility of error and reform; therefore, they do not
require the full assent of faith, but a lesser type of assent called the
“religious submission of mind and will” [5]. What this means is that you are
generally required to believe the non-infallible teachings of the Church. But
there is some room for faithful dissent, called “licit theological dissent”
[4]. To whatever extent a teaching might err, the faithful are free to
disagree. God who is Truth never requires assent to false or erroneous ideas.

The non-infallible teachings
of the Magisterium are full of truth. The number, type, and extent of the
possible errors is quite limited.

An example of an error in a
non-infallible teaching is found in the first edition of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, in the definition of lying, which erroneously stated that an
assertion is only a lie if the person (to whom you are speaking) has a right to
the truth. That claim was removed from the second edition.

Caveat: The basis for the
disagreement must be Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, or teachings of the
Magisterium of greater authority. Most Catholics who reject a non-infallible
teaching of the Magisterium have no legitimate basis for that rejection.

Pay attention to this caveat. Well stated Mr. Conte.

4. Infallible Teachings

The infallible teachings are
free from all possibility of error due to the work of the Holy Spirit. The infallible
teachings require your full assent with the virtue of faith; obstinate
disagreement is the grave sin of heresy.

The infallible Magisterium is
exercised in any of three ways:

a. Papal Infallibility

b. Conciliar Infallibility

c. the ordinary and universal Magisterium

To reject an infallible
teaching of the Magisterium is material heresy. To do so knowingly and
deliberately is the grave sin of formal heresy, which includes the penalty of
automatic excommunication. If Pope Francis or any other valid Pope teaches
something under any type of infallibility, you are required to give that
teaching the full assent of faith. Otherwise, you commit heresy and formally
separate yourself from the one true Church.

Caveat: Do not be fooled by
those blind guides who claim that the Pope can commit heresy himself, and
thereby lose his authority. Doctor of the Church Saint Robert Bellarmine held
it to be “probable” that the Pope could never commit heresy personally, nor
teach heresy in any way. He also held it to be “certain” that the Pope could
never define a heresy as a teaching to be believed by the whole Church.

The foolish today claim that
IF a Pope teaches heresy in a way that would seem to fall under infallibility,
the teaching is nullified because the Pope fell into heresy. To the contrary,
Saint Bellarmine believed that a Pope could NEVER teach heresy in a way that
would seem to fall under infallibility.

If all of this is true of the pope, so much more so does it apply to
priests, bishops, archbishops, and Cardinals. We are free to disagree on
opinion.

Recently
the pope made comments about marriage and co-habitation. Some of his
comments were misunderstood, but some of them were outright wrong. Here
is a discussion about the pope's comments on The World Over, a news
program on EWTN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFyB-DxzmQJust
in case it resets, the discussion starts about 27:51. Both guests
Robert Royal, and Fr. Gerald Murray, disagree strongly with the pope's
words. Guess what, they are free to do so, and under the category of
"non-infallible teachings we see that they do have legitimate reasons to
disagree with him. The pope was not making an official proclamation nor
was he teaching on faith and morals from the chair of Peter. We are
allowed to disagree with the pope when his teaching seems to conflict
tradition Catholic teaching. We have had unorthodox popes in the past,
and the magesterium has disagreed with a pope or two in the past, but
the Church's dogmas and doctrines have never been changed in any
material way by any reigning pope.

St. Walburga's Search

The Divine Mercy

Divine Mercy Chaplet

This meditative prayer may be prayed using an ordinary rosary. It is normally said at 3pm daily, the traditional time of death of Jesus on the cross, but can be prayed anytime.

Begin with:

Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, and the Apostles Creed.

Next, on the 'Our Father' beads, say:

"Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world."

On the 10 'Hail Mary' beads, say:

"For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

Repeat the previous 2 steps until you've completed all five 'decades.'

Then say this prayer 3 times:

"Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

End with:

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Grace

The Memorae

Remember, O most compassionate virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your assistance, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, we fly to you, O virgin of virgins, Our Mother; to you we come, before you we kneel sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate despise not out petitions, but in your clemency, hear and answer them.

Amen

St. Walburga

Tapestry image of St. Walburga - Feast Day, February 25th

Prayer to St. Walburga

St. Walburga,

By your blessed life of love, God blessed you with the power to heal, to make whole the soul as well as the body. Beg for us what we cannot obtain for ourselves, and heal our world of sickness and sorrow. May God hear you, who lived so graciously for His glory, and send us the healing grace we need, through your powerful intercession.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.